2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament

2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament
2014 Final Four logo
Season	2013–14
Finals site	AT&T Stadium Arlington, Texas
NCAA Men's Division I Tournaments «2013  2015»

The 2014 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament involves 68 teams playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball. It began on March 18, 2014, and will conclude with the championship game on April 7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas.

The East Regional semifinals and final will be held in Madison Square Garden, the first time that arena has been used as an NCAA Tournament venue and the first time in 63 years that tournament games have been held in New York City.

Tournament procedure

For 2014 the selection committee picked a total of 68 teams that would enter the 2014 tournament. Thirty-one of the 32 automatic bids teams were given to the programs that won their conference tournaments. The remaining automatic bid went to the regular-season champion of the Ivy League, the only Division I conference that does not hold a postseason tournament. The remaining 36 teams were granted "at-large" bids, which were extended by the NCAA Selection Committee on the Sunday preceding the First Four play-in tournament and dubbed Selection Sunday by the media and fans. This was made possible with the addition of the new American Athletic Conference, which is made up of the FBS football-playing schools of the original Big East Conference. The new Big East includes 10 colleges that do not sponsor football at the FBS level: the so-called Catholic 7 from the original Big East, plus Butler and Xavier from the Atlantic 10 Conference, and Creighton from the Missouri Valley Conference.

Eight teams—the four lowest-seeded automatic qualifiers and the four lowest-seeded at-large teams—will play in the First Four (the successor to what had been popularly known as "play-in games" through the 2010 tournament). The winners of these games advance to the main draw of the tournament.

The Selection Committee also seeded the entire field from 1 to 68.^[1]

Notables

Wichita State became the first team since UNLV in 1991 to go into the tournament undefeated. The Shockers entered the tournament 34-0.

MEAC champion North Carolina Central University^[2] and Big West champion Cal Poly^[3] made their first NCAA Division I tournament appearances.

For the second time since 1973 no teams from the state of Indiana were in the tournament.^[4]

There were four overtime games in the first day of the tournament, the most overtime games ever in tournament history. In contrast, the previous two tournaments had two overtime games combined.

North Dakota State's victory against Oklahoma secured the first tournament win for the state of North Dakota.

2014 NCAA Tournament schedule and venues

Dayton

Buffalo

Milwaukee

Orlando

Spokane

Raleigh

San Antonio

San Diego

St. Louis

2014 First Four (black) and second and third rounds (green)

Anaheim

Memphis

Indianapolis

New York City

Arlington

2014 Regionals (blue) and Final Four (red)

The following are the sites selected to host each round of the 2014 tournament:^[5]

First Four

• March 18 and 19
  • University of Dayton Arena, Dayton, Ohio

Second and third rounds

• March 20 and 22
  • First Niagara Center, Buffalo, New York (Host: Canisius College, Niagara University)
  • BMO Harris Bradley Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin (Host: Marquette University)
  • Amway Center, Orlando, Florida (Host: Stetson University)
  • Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, Spokane, Washington (Host: Washington State University)
• March 21 and 23
  • PNC Arena, Raleigh, North Carolina (Host: North Carolina State University)
  • AT&T Center, San Antonio, Texas (Host: University of Texas at San Antonio)
  • Viejas Arena, San Diego, California (Host: San Diego State University)
  • Scottrade Center, St. Louis, Missouri (Host: Missouri Valley Conference)

Regional semifinals and finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight)

• March 27 and 29
  • South Regional, FedExForum, Memphis, Tennessee (Host: University of Memphis)
  • West Regional, Honda Center, Anaheim, California (Host: Big West Conference)
• March 28 and 30
  • East Regional, Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York (Hosts: St. John's University, Big East Conference)
  • Midwest Regional, Lucas Oil Stadium, Indianapolis, Indiana (Hosts: IUPUI, The Summit League)

National semifinals and championship (Final Four and Championship)

• April 5 and 7
  • AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas (Host: Big 12 Conference)

Qualified teams

Automatic qualifiers

The following teams are automatic qualifiers for the 2014 NCAA field by virtue of winning their conference's tournament (except for the Ivy League, whose regular-season champion receives the automatic bid).

Tournament seeds

Bracket

Bracket

* – Denotes overtime period

Unless otherwise noted, all times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (UTC-04)

First Four – Dayton, Ohio

South Regional – Memphis, Tennessee

West Regional – Anaheim, California

Midwest Regional – Indianapolis, Indiana

East Regional – New York City, New York

Final Four – AT&T Stadium, Arlington, Texas

During the Final Four round, regardless of the records of the participating teams, the champion of the top overall top seed's region plays against the champion of the fourth-ranked top seed's region, and the champion of the second overall top seed's region plays against the champion of the third-ranked top seed's region.^[7]Florida (placed in the South Regional) was selected as the top overall seed, and Virginia (in the East Regional) was named as the fourth and final #1 seed.^[8] Thus, the South champion will play the East Champion in one semifinal game, and the West Champion will face the Midwest Champion in the other semifinal game.^[9]

Record by conference

• The R64, R32, S16, E8, F4, CG, NC columns indicate how many teams from each conference were in the round of 64 (second round), round of 32 (third round), Sweet 16, Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game, and national champion, respectively.
• The SWAC and NEC each had one representative, eliminated in the first round with a record of 0–1.
• The MAAC, OVC, WAC, Patriot League, Colonial, Sun Belt, Big Sky, Horizon League, Southern Conference, and MAC each had one representative, eliminated in the second round with a record of 0–1.

Media coverage

Television

CBS Sports and Turner Sports have US television rights to the tournament.

• First Four - truTV
• Second and Third Rounds - CBS, TBS, TNT, and truTV
• Regional Semifinals and Finals (Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight) - CBS and TBS
• National Semifinals (Final Four) - TBS, TNT, truTV
  • TBS will air the normal national feed and TNT and truTV will each air team-specific broadcasts.^[10]
• National Championship - CBS

Studio hosts

• Greg Gumbel (New York) – Second Round, Third Round
• Ernie Johnson Jr. (New York) – Second Round, Third Round
• Matt Winer (Atlanta) – First Four

Studio analysts

• Charles Barkley (New York) – Second Round, Third Round
• Seth Davis (Atlanta) – First Four
• Grant Hill (Atlanta) – First Four
• Clark Kellogg (New York) – Second Round, Third Round
• Kenny Smith (New York) – Second Round, Third Round
• Steve Smith (Atlanta) – First Four

Commentary teams

• Jim Nantz/Greg Anthony/Steve Kerr/Tracy Wolfson – Second and Third Round at St. Louis, MO
  Kerr joins Nantz and Anthony during the Final Four and National Championship games
• Marv Albert/Steve Kerr/Craig Sager – Second and Third Round at San Antonio, TX
• Verne Lundquist/Bill Raftery/Allie LaForce – Second and Third Round at Buffalo, NY
• Kevin Harlan/Len Elmore/Reggie Miller/Rachel Nichols – First Four at Dayton, OH; Second and Third Round at Raleigh, NC
• Ian Eagle/Jim Spanarkel/Lewis Johnson – Second and Third Round at Milwaukee, WI
• Brian Anderson/Dan Bonner/Kristine Leahy – First Four at Dayton, OH; Second and Third Round at Orlando, FL
• Spero Dedes/Doug Gottlieb/Jaime Maggio – Second and Third Round at Spokane, WA
• Andrew Catalon/Mike Gminski/Otis Livingston – Second and Third Round at San Diego, CA

Radio

Westwood One has exclusive radio rights to the entire tournament.^[11]

First Four

• John Tautges and Kyle Macy – at Dayton, OH

Second and third round

• Scott Graham and John Thompson – Raleigh, NC
• Kevin Kugler and Jim Jackson – St. Louis, MO
• Wayne Larrivee and Kelly Tripucka – Milwaukee, WI
• Tom McCarthy and Donny Marshall – Orlando, FL
• Dave Sims and Bill Frieder – San Diego, CA
• Ted Robinson and P. J. Carlesimo – Spokane, WA
• Brad Sham and Will Perdue – San Antonio, TX
• Gary Cohen and Kevin Grevey – Buffalo, NY

Regionals

• Ian Eagle and John Thompson – East Regional at New York, NY
• Kevin Kugler and P. J. Carlesimo – Midwest Regional at Indianapolis, IN
• Ted Robinson and Bill Frieder – West Regional at Anaheim, CA
• Gary Cohen and Will Perdue – South Regional at Memphis, TN

Final Four

• Kevin Kugler, John Thompson, and Bill Raftery – Arlington, TX